Nick Cain: Sabotage of Samoa is indictment of the IRB

Samoan rugby is in meltdown a year away from the 2015 World Cup, and the fact that a Pacific Island nation that has consistently punched far above its weight, twice qualifying for the quarter-finals, is in such a mess should be of grave concern to the IRB.
The Samoans have helped to enrich rugby’s flagship tournament with their dynamism and flair, yet there are clear signs that mismanagement of the game at domestic and international level is reducing Samoa, and their South Pacific neighbours Fiji and Tonga, to nothing more than cannon-fodder.
The latest distress signal is a threat from the Samoan squad to boycott next weekend’s Twickenham Test against England in protest at the way the sport is being run on their island(s). Their complaints focus on a lack of transparency over funding since the country’s Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, was also appointed as the chairman of the Samoan Rugby Union – despite the dual role’s potential for conflicts of interest.
The crisis has been brewing since hooker Mahroni Schwalger was stripped of the Samoa captaincy and dropped from the squad following his criticism of the management at the 2011 World Cup and then, in 2012, giving an interview as part of a New Zealand TV news investigation into financial irregularities.
Schwalger highlighted that Malielegaoi had made a televised public appeal for funds to support the team at the 2011 tournament, which raised £1.6m (6m Samoan Tala) from the rugby-mad local population. Schwalger says that the 30-man squad’s hotel costs during their preparation in Samoa was no more than £55,000 and that combined with playing fees of little more than a weekly £640 per player during the tournament, totalling another c. £55,000, a massive surplus remained.
The Samoan players want to know what happened to the balance of over £1.4m, and want it accounted for by the Samoan RU. Schwalger’s view that the Samoan RU is not fit for purpose was supported by letters of support from eight senior players to the local Press, including Seilala Mapusua, Maurie Fa’asavalu and Tusi Pisi. He also said it was behind the move for Samoans to play for other nations.
“How come all these guys want to play for the All Blacks or England, and not for Manu Samoa? These are the reasons why. If we get the right people there – honest and committed people – then I’m sure Samoan rugby will be unstoppable on the world stage.”
The player grievances include tour payments that have been stuck at £640 a week per player since 1990, and the stipulation that they pay their own air-fares to Samoa for summer tour Tests. They assert that players who have raised questions, like Schwalger and Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, have been dropped and black-listed, and that national coaches are dictated to over selection.
There is also the suggestion that the families in Samoa of those who question the regime could be victimised in a job opportunities/workplace context.
However, the player demands – including the resignation of a number of senior Samoa RU officials – met with an angry response from Premier Malielegoai on Friday when he said the strike-threat was childish. He said he had written them letters, “addressing them as a father would to kids who don’t understand”.
Malielegoai blamed “two or three players who are nearing retirement” for being trouble-makers. He added, “So submit your resignation and we’ll select new players…this thing appears to be have been stirred by overseas-based players.”
However, despite the questions raised over the competence of the Samoan RU, the IRB have yet to invoke the option of withholding the £750,000 p.a. they pay  into the Union’s coffers until they get their house in order.
This is a symptom of a leadership vacuum within the world game’s governing body. Since the 1995 World Cup the IRB have had a strategic plan to develop so-called “second tier” nations like Samoa, Fiji and Tonga so that the pool of competitive rugby nations grows, making the tournament a genuine global showpiece rather than one eternally shared by New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, England or France.
Twenty years on it has been an abject failure. The big nations named above are the only ones to have contested the seven World Cup finals since 1987, and for all the fanfare surrounding 2015 the competitive base of the event is shrinking. Apart from Ireland and Wales no-one looks capable of beating the usual suspects, or even threatening to do so.
Worse, the Pacific Island nations are in danger of becoming mere feeder-sides for the richer Unions, or their clubs, with their players either being poached – promoted by the crass three year residency ruling – or unavailable for Test duty irrespective of IRB release windows.
Uini Atonio, a former Samoa U20 prop, was selected in the France squad ahead of last weekend’s 40-15 win over Fiji. At the same time as their countrymen were being over-run, Fijian-born wings Napolioni Nalaga and Seru Nakaitaci (one cap for France) were scoring tries in Clermont’s victory over Stade Francais. (Never mind two more Fijians, Australia’s Tevita Kuridrani and England’s Semesa Rokoduguni, also in international action). Meanwhile, two of Samoa’s key forwards, tight-head Census Johnston and lock Joe Tekori, played for Toulouse against Bordeaux but were unavailable for the autumn series, likewise Samoan-born Clermont No.8 Fritz Lee.
The days of Samoa beating Wales twice in the pool stages (1991 and 1999), or rattling England (2003) or South Africa (2011), or Fiji taking the Springboks to the brink (2007 quarter-final), or Tonga beating France (2011), will soon be consigned to history unless the IRB get a grip.
*This article was first published in The Rugby Paper on November 16.